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COPYRIGRT DEPOSm 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 



WHATSOEVER A 
MAN SOWETH 



BY 



W. HOWARD SNYDER 

Industrial Arts Department 

Public Schools 

Knoxville, Tennessee 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

BOSTON CHICAGO 



I)\/4-^0\ 
."57 ^5 



COPTRIQHT 1917 

By W. HOWARD SNYDER 



r° 



io: 



FEB 27 1917 



THE PILGRIM PEESS 
BOSTON 



Gi,A457247 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT ^ 

Grateful acknowledgment is made 
to the following authors and publish- 
ers for permission to use the quota- 
tions from their works which are 
found in these pages : to Henry Holt 
& Co., James's Psychology; Lothrop, 
Lee & Shepard, Making of a Man; 
T. Y. Crowell; Beacon Press, Human 
Harvest; Penn Publishing Co., Fotir 
Mottoes; Charles Scribners' Sons, 
Poem by Henry van Dyke; and to 
David Starr Jordan, Elbert Hubbard 
and Elia W. Peattie. 



PEEFACE 

This little book contains two brief 
articles, which the author chooses to 
call layman's sermons. They are two 
among many that were given at a little 
mission in the vast, wild wilderness of 
northern Montana. In these articles 
there is nothing new or original. The 
author sincerely hopes they will give 
strength to those who run in this race 
of life. 

w. H. s. 
Knoxvillej Tenn. 



PART I 
WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 



*^Our Republic shall endure so long as the human 
harvest is good, so long as the movements of history, 
the progress of science and industry leaves for the 
future the best and not the worst of each generations^ 

David Starr Jordan 



PART 1 
WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

C far as I know I have nothing new 
^ or original in this address. What 
I have to say has been said many 
times before. My text is universally 
true, and is found in the philosophy 
and teachings of all men of all 
races and all times and all places. 
Our Hebrew preacher uttered a truth 
of universal origin when he uttered 
this old maxim. But long before the 
Hebrews uttered this, other peoples 
had come to the same unvarying con- 
clusion. Over and over again men 
have told this truth in forms without 
number. It is a law of God and is 
always true. Still each new genera- 
tion tries it over and over again,^ 
only to come back to the same uni- 
versal conclusion that as we sow so 
also shall we reap; that as the seed 
so also shall be the harvest. Wher- 

[1] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

ever I go, in whatever I read, I see 
this old truth verified over and over 
again. Authors without number have 
Avritten about it, teachers in every age 
have taught its worth, and orators of 
all times have made it a subject of 
discourse. All life and all literature 
prove the worth of this proverb. It 
is the talk of the fireside and the 
thought of philosophers. Farmers 
congregated at the court-house talk 
about it, scientists at the universities 
write about it, preachers preach 
about it, and all the world thinks 
about it. 

I find this same thought in many- 
parts of the New Testament. I shall 
give it in a few of its different forms : 

**Now this I say, brethren, that flesh 
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom 
of God; neither doth corruption in- 
herit incorruption.^' 

*^With what measure ye mete it 
shall be measured unto you.^' 

**By their fruits ye shall know 
them.'' 

**He which soweth sparingly shall 
reap also sparingly; and he which 

[2] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

soweth bountifully shall reap also 
bountifully/^ 

^*No fountain can both yield salt 
water and fresh water. '^ 

One member of an equation is time 
properly used, the other member is 
growth and development. One mem- 
ber of an equation is time wasted, 
the other is decay and degeneration. 
Development is measured in terms of 
effort. Effort is always blessed, in- 
activity and sloth always cursed. 
Long ago Franklin said: ^^ Idleness is 
the Dead Sea that swallows all vir- 
tue: Be active in business; the bird 
that sits is easily shot." This law 
holds true for all forms of life, from 
the lowest to the highest. It is as true 
for the amoeba as for man. Allow 
me to take an illustration from the 
science of zoology, for about this 
science we all know a few things. 
Allow me to illustrate from a class of 
aninials known as Crustacea. This 
class is low in the ^ale of develop- 
menjt. But this makes no difference, 
it will illustrate my point just the 
same. You will remember that crabs 

[31 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SO^^TH 

and lobsters belong to this class. It 
is called Crustacea because of the shell 
in which the animal life is encased. 
There is one known as sacculina. 
What holds for this little parasite 
holds for all animal life. Here are a 
few words of Dr. David Starr Jordan 
on this point : ^ ' This creature appears 
as a simple sac attached to the body 
of the crab, into which its root proc- 
esses or blood vessels extend. When 
it is hatched from the egg it is similar 
in form to a young crab, independent 
and free swimming. It soon attaches 
itself to some adult crab, into the 
body of which it extends its proc- 
esses. It loses its power of locomo- 
tion, and the limbs all disappear. 
Living at the expense of others, self- 
activity is not demanded, and its po- 
sition protects it from competition to 
which free-swinuning crabs are sub- 
ject. It becomes degraded into a para- 
sitic sac, with no organs except a ner- 
vous ganglion and blood vessels. '^ 
This animal lives wholly at the ex- 
pense of another. There is in its life 
no self-activity ; no struggle for food ; 

[4] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

no struggle for protection against 
other animals. There is in its life no 
competition, without which there can 
be no development. 

Dame Nature gives in exact pro- 
portion to our efforts. If our gigan- 
tic, red-haired, blue-eyed, Teutonic 
ancestors, who wandered over north- 
ern Europe clad in bearskins fas- 
tened at the throat with thorns, had 
lived in the tropics where Dame Na- 
ture is gentle and kind and gives food 
for the gathering and shelter without 
asking, if our Teutonic ancestors had 
lived where no self-exertion was 
necessary we would not have a Teu- 
tonic civilization today. Civilization 
has never reached its highest stages 
of development in the tropics, but 
^^ where the sunshine is tempered by a 
northern wind.'' If Nature gives her 
children food and shelter they do not 
exert themselves. And without exer- 
tion there can be no development. If 
a father gives his son millions, his 
son ceases to grow and begins to de- 
cay. If a miner finds a ^^ pocket'' he 
will ever after go about with head 

[5] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

down looking for more pockets. To 
him that struggles, strength will be 
given, and to him that struggles not, 
weakness comes. The ancient Greeks 
said, ^^The gods of labor give us all 
good things'' ; the Eomans said, 
Labor omnia vincit, '^ Labor conquers 
all things.'' 

Those animals which are the most 
active develop their powers most. 
They are the best fitted to survive, 
and so we have the ^^ survival of the 
fittest." The weakling, the inactive, 
the sickly are not able to overcome 
the forces of death. Some die from 
cold, some from inability to secure 
food, others from inability to escape 
their enemies. Nature selects the 
strong to live, the weak to die. The 
weak die because they cannot over- 
come the forces of death. There is 
natural selection in all things. It is 
an inevitable law of God and cannot 
be changed or violated without pun- 
ishment. The fleetest deer, the 
strongest and most pugnacious lion, 
the most cunning fox, — these are the 
best fitted to escape their enemies and 

[6] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

secure food. The fleetness of the deer, 
the pugnacity of the lion, the cunning 
of the fox, — these depend on self- 
activity. As these animals have lived 
so they are. On one side of the equa- 
tion is the fleetness of the deer, the 
pugnacity of the lion, and the cun- 
ning of the fox, on the other side 
is self-exertion. They are exactly 
balanced. Breed from the poorest of 
your herd and your herd will soon de- 
generate. Breed from the horse that 
has the cleanest limb and the fleetest 
foot and you will soon have a breed 
of racers. Destroy the largest, 
strongest, heaviest, and most sym- 
metrical and promising colts of the 
shire breed and your breed will soon 
degenerate. Let the weaklings of 
any species multiply and there is sure 
to be degeneration. Every farmer in 
the United States knows this to be 
true. The shire and the Shetland are 
what they are because of inevitable 
laws. 

This same law holds true in plant 
life as in animal life. As the seed so 
shall be the harvest. Inferior seed corn 

[7] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

produces inferior corn and a light 
yield. We do not expect oats to grow 
from corn, neither do we expect ap- 
ples to grow from peach seeds, neither 
do we expect grapes from thorns. 
Like produces like. We know that 
the harvest depends on the seed. 
Luther Burbank has, out at his home 
in California, many curious things, 
among others, a dog fennel as high 
as my head. How did he produce 
this ? It is easy to answer. To begin 
with he selected the largest of the 
wild plants, and then saved the seeds 
from these. From each new crop he 
selected the largest plants from which 
to save the seed for the next new crop. 
And so he continued until this mam- 
moth fennel was produced. 

Like begets like in man as well as 
in the plant world. Normal parents 
under normal conditions b^get nor- 
mal children. The ancestors of a 
Jefferson or a Shakespeare, or a 
Washington, must have been normal. 
The children of normal parents are 
normal, disease and accident ex- 
cepted ; and the children of degenerate 

[8] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

parents are degenerate. Idiots beget 
idiots, weaklings beget weaklings. 
President David Starr Jordan says, 
in northern Italy, in the valley of the 
Aosa and other Alpine regions a form 
of idiocy was found known as cretin- 
ism. These cretins, a class of idiots, 
which rarely exceed four feet in 
height, have married and intermarried 
with one another for generations. 
They invariably give birth to cretin 
children. ^^When a child is half- 
witted or epileptic, for example, un- 
less the condition be the direct prod- 
uct of disease, we may look for imbe- 
cility somewhere in its ancestry." 
(Dr. Jordan.) Idiots beget idiots, 
pigmies beget pigmies, giants beget 
giants. We do not expect children 
born of negro parents to be white, nor 
those born of Indian parents to be 
black. We do not look for shire colts 
from Shetland ponies, nor squabs 
from goose eggs. Neither do we 
think fish are hatched from frogs' 
eggs, nor frogs from; lizards' eggs. 
We think similar begets similar. We 
do not expect to gather figs from 

[9] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

thorns, nor grapes from thistles. 
We do not expect the like to produce 
the unlike. Science confirms this over 
and over again. I know of no instance 
of figs producing thorns. 

This certainly is true in the ethical 
world. Vice produces more vice and 
virtue produces more virtue. Drunk- 
enness produces more drunkenness. 
Every one knows that one drink calls 
for another drink. As we labor so 
shall be our reward, as we live so shall 
be our lives. 

"A man is his own star; 
Our acts our angels are, 
For good or ill." 

It is as true in things human as in 
things crustacean that development is 
measured in terms of effort. He who 
tries hardest succeeds best. The 
greater the effort the greater the ac- 
complishment. The greater the study 
the greater the knowledge. The 
greater the amount of practice the 
nearer one comes to perfection. If 
this law be true (and it most assuredly 
is), why is it that I see about me 

[10] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

everywhere, men, women, boys, and 
girls squandering time and opportu- 
nity as if this earthly life lasted for- 
ever and there was no end to time? 
There is something wrong with the 
man who has nothing to do. The nor- 
mal man is not an idle man. 

Now, let me give a paragraph from 
Orison Sweet Harden: ^^The Spirit 
of man is a mighty spirit for action. 
It will not be contented in idleness. 
It is an impelling force which drives 
him over land and over sea; it tor- 
ments him w'ith a thirst to know and 
a yearning to do; it inspires him to 
mold, to carve, to build.'* He who 
lives a life of inactivity violates an 
immutable law of God. He punishes 
himself in his act of violation. Man 
is made for action and cannot be still. 
Criminologists tell us that the worst 
punishment that can be inflicted on a 
criminal is solitary confinement in a 
dungeon cell. This soon drives the 
criminal mad. Alone, none to speak 
to, none to see — ^no light to see with — 
no purpose for action, no chance to 
act, the criminal soon becomes unbal- 

[11] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

anced. Some one said, the very fiends 
of hell weave ropes of sand only to 
see them fall to pieces, rather than 
face the hell of idleness. Great men 
of every age find that time is too short 
for the accomplishment of their cher- 
ished tasks. Never do they complain 
of too much work, but always of too 
little time. 

Allow me to present a picture 
which was suggested by an article 
of Chancellor David Starr Jordan. 
As I go out on the street I see hun- 
dreds of men and boys standing 
around some crack-brained medicine 
vendor, '^swarming around him like 
flies around a drop of molasses, 
with mouths open and brains shut,'' 
as if life lasted forever and there was 
nothing to do in this world but gape. 
As I go about my work tomorrow and 
the next day and the next, and so on 
from month to month, I see the flies 
still there, still swarming around the 
drop of molasses. There is the half- 
witted simpleton and his corn medi- 
cine, or his discordant accordion; and 
there are the sound-bodied men and 

[12] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

boys with mouths open and brains 
shut. How long have they been there? 
Since the beginning of their lives. 
How long will they be there ? Some of 
them will be there until death takes 
them away. Ask one of these para- 
sites what he does for a living, he will 
say ' ' nothing. ' ^ Ask him what he can 
do, and he will say *^ nothing.'^ 
Nothing comes from nothingness. We 
cannot get blood from a lemon. As 
these flies live so is their worth. As 
we sow so also shall we reap. As we 
live from day to day so also shall be 
our lives. As we spend our time so 
will character and worth be meas- 
ured. Do you waste time? Then you 
are wasting life. Franklin said, 
^^Time is the stuff life is made of, 
therefore do not waste it.'' Time if it 
be properly used means growth and 
development. '^ Every day wasted 
takes a cubit from your stature. ' * 

Success in life means the develop- 
ment of our talents to the limit of our 
capability. Some have one talent, 
some have two, some have more. **To 
come to the full measure of these 

[13] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

powers constitutes success in life/' 
Do you see a hundred trains come in 
on a hundred consecutive days? Do 
you waste your time in gaping on 
street corners or in a never ending 
game of **pedro'' or ^^ruromie'^l If 
you do, remember that the harvest 
will be like the seed. Look about you 
and see who are the men who are 
worth while. Are they busy? Yes, 
busy doing something that is worth 
while. Success is a near relative to 
time. Time properly used is success. 
Each day is a little life. Never will 
one be successful if he wastes his 
time. This is impossible, it cannot be. 
Wasted time is a curse of nature. It 
is sometimes said, my time is money ; 
but this is only partly true, time is 
more than this. Time is life itself. 
Remember the words of Faust: 

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute. 
What you can do, or think you can, begin it.'' 

As you go about your work notice 
how just are the laws of God, notice 
how just are the laws which regulate 
the universe, notice how speedily pun- 

[141 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

ishment comes to him who violates 
these laws. Every virtue has its own 
compensation ; every vice its own ret- 
ribution. ^*The specific stripes may 
follow late after the offence, but 
they will follow, because they accom- 
pany it. Crime and punishment grow 
out of one stem. Punishment is the 
fruit that unsuspected ripens with the 
flower of the pleasure which concealed 
it. Cause and effect, means and end, 
seed and fruit, cannot be severed, for 
the effect already blooms in the cause, 
and pre-exists in the means, the fruit 
in the seed." (Emerson.) The laws 
of God are just, no man ever violated 
them but that in the act of violation 
he punished himself. For example, 
lie and you will soon be unable to tell 
the truth. Habit will settle this for 
you. No man ever sinned against the 
body but that his sense of chastity was 
blunted and his conscience dulled. As 
we live so shall we be. As we think so 
shall we become. The French have it, 
Honi soit qui mat y pense (Evil to 
him who evil thinks ) . * * Our thoughts, ' ' 
says Marcus Aurelius, *'dye our ac- 

[15] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

tions." No man ever thought an evil 
thought that made him better nor a 
pure thought that made him worse. 
Think vicious thoughts and you are 
vicious. Think criminal thoughts and 
you will soon love the company of 
criminals. Birds of a feather flock 
together. Are you morose and sul- 
len? Then you will lose the love of 
wife and children. He that is lov- 
able will be loved. He that deserves 
hatred will receive it. The merchant 
that would make too much profit soon 
loses his trade. The physician who is 
cruel soon has no patients. And so 
there is a balancing in all things. If 
one is selfish and centered in self, then 
as Scott says, he 

"Doubly dying, shall go down 
To the vile dust from whence he sprung 
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.^' 

Why is it that thousands annually 
visit certain health resorts, * ^ the sink- 
holes into which a large part of the 
immorality, crime, and disease of 
America is dumped''? Why this! 
Because they have violated an inevita- 

[16] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

ble law of God. They are reaping 
what they have sown. Yonder in the 
forest driveway a fair girl was found 
dead one bright morning in June. 
She, poor girl, harvested her oats, but 
God have mercy, they were wild oats. 
Yonder in the streets are thousands 
of paupers who live in misery and dis- 
grace. Sixty per cent, of this is 
caused by vice, idleness, and drink; 
thirty per cent, is caused by wasted 
youth followed by old age and inca- 
pacity to work ; ten per cent, is caused 
by bodily disease, and accident, and 
inability to find work. These poor, 
wretched people suffer because they 
or their ancestors have sinned. Sin 
always brings suffering, it always 
will. Sin and suffering go hand in 
hand. They grow out of the same 
stem. Misery is only nature's warn- 
ing that man is violating her laws. 
Why is it that misery and sorrow are 
in the world? It is because the seeds 
of misery and sorrow have been sown. 
As the seed so shall be the harvest. 
If we plant seeds of pain and remorse 
and sorrow we must expect to har- 

[171 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

vest pain and remorse and sorrow. 
Seeds of immorality never produced 
a crop of morality. Gambling never 
made an honest man ; nor drunkenness 
a clean man; vicious thoughts never 
made pure, sweet souls; suUenness 
never made a happy man; hatred 
never begot love; selfishness never 
stirred men and women to acts of 
heroism and generosity; cowardice 
never stirred men and women to 
courageous deeds; lying never made 
any one honest; never, never will the 
unlike beget the like. Like begets 
like. The world is just. The members 
of the equation must be exactly bal- 
anced, and they are. 

This same law writes the law of 
love and its counterfeit lust. He who 
will be loved must cheerfully bear the 
responsibilities and duties of love. 
Love comes from love and lust comes 
from lust. Lust is man's endeavor 
to enjoy the pleasures of love without 
the responsibilities. We cannot live 
a life of love and devotion to family 
and at the same time a life of lust and 

[18] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

pandering to profligacy. We cannot 
blow both hot and cold at the same 
time with the same breath. 

We cannot deceive long. Either 
purity or lust will leave its indelible 
writing on our faces, our acts, and our 
thoughts. It will be written in all lan- 
guages and so plainly that all who run 
may read. No knowing man will or 
can be deceived long. Asleep or 
awake, in solitude or in society, in 
wealth or in poverty, it makes no dif- 
ference. The truth is written every- 
where and is always in indelible ink. 
It is written in Esperanto, and may 
be read by the light of day or the dark- 
ness of night. 

** There is equality in all things,'/ 
says Emerson. All that is worth while 
must be bought and paid for; be it 
in bodily strength, mental develop- 
ment, or social accomplishment. Gen- 
ius is often hard work and persever- 
ance in disguise. The gods of labor 
give us all good things. To him 
that hath more shall be given. Failure 
to him who seeks something for 

[191 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

nothing. All things have their price, 
all bitter hath its sweet ; all bad hath 
its retribution, all good its compensa- 
tion. All that has worth must be 
bought, never can we get something 
for nothing. Nature gives nothing 
away. The gods of labor give us all 
good things, but we must pay the 
price, which is labor. 

Never did man accomplish anything 
worth while without labor. ^'I can 
say that I have seen Michael Angelo,'' 
says a Frenchman, ^^when he was 
about sixty years of age, and not then 
very robust, make the fragments of 
marble fly about at such a rate that he 
cut off more in a quarter of an hour 
than three strong young men could 
have done in an hour — a thing almost 
incredible to any one who has not seen 
it; and he used to work with such a 
fury, with such an impetus, that it was 
feared that he would dash the whole 
marble to pieces, making at each 
stroke chips of three or four fingers' 
thickness fly off; with a material 
in which if he had gone only a hair's 
breadth too far he would have totally 

[20] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

destroyed the work, which could not 
be restored like a plaster or clay. ' ' ^ 

Think of this noble soul who for 
seven years worked most diligently 
decorating the Sistine Chapel with 
his immortal *' Story of the Creation'* 
and with the '^Last Judgment.'' 
Think of him working so incessantly 
that the muscles and cords of his neck 
became rigid so that he could not look 
down w'ithout bending the body. ^ ' For 
weeks together he did not remove his 
clothes, and carried his bread with 
him to the scaffold that he might work 
while he ate, and so not lose a moment. 
Think of this man whom the world 
calls one of its greatest geniuses, with 
a block of marble in his sleeping-room 
and chisel and mallet ever ready to 
obey the call of a new thought." 

We are all self-made men and 
women or we are not made at all. The 
best that others can do for us is to 
better our opportunities. We most 
assuredly will have to do the rest. 

»This quotation is from "The Making of a Man/* by 
Orison Sweet Marden, page 173. 

[21] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

It matters not how straight the gate, 
How charged with punishment the scroll, 

I am master of my fate, 
I am the captain of my soul. 

— Henley, 

The world has nothing to bestow. 
From our own selves our bliss must flow. 

— Cotton, 

Not in the charm of the crowded street. 
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the 
throng. 
But in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. 

— Longfellow, 

We shape ourselves the joy or fear 
Of which the coming life is made. 

And fill our future's atmosphere 
With sunshine or with shade. 

— Whittier, 

A man^s soul is his own heaven or 
hell, he may make of it whichever he 
chooses. It should be his heaven. 
God does not intend that he shall be 
miserable and merit suffering and 
death. God intends that *^ Death 
shall be swallowed up in victory, '^ 
and that he live in heaven now and 
here. *' Neither shall they say, Lo 
here! or Lo there! for, behold the 

[22] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

Kingdom of God is within you.'^ In 
the divine order of things it is meant 
that he radiate happiness as the sun 
radiates warmth, and that all his days 
effulge with joy as the sun with light. 
Happiness, joy, sublimity, love, the 
peace that passes understanding, — 
these are but results of right thinking 
and acting. * ^ Seek ye first the King- 
dom of God, and his righteousness, 
and all these things shall be added 
unto you.*' Man can make of his soul 
a heaven, wholesome, sweet, and clean, 
a heaven of sublimity and joy with- 
out measure, if he will but oust 
hatred and malice and envy and lust, 
and rest assured that the laws of God 
are just and immutable; and that to 
violate a single one of them, be it 
never so little, will bring suffering and 
misery. **Not every one that saith 
unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into 
the kingdom of heaven; but he that 
doeth the will of my father which is in 
heaven. '* 

The Kingdom of Hell is at hand and 
is within. Man can turn his mind into 
an inferno of diabolical, licentious, 

[23] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

fiendish, tormenting thoughts which 
will torment his wretched soul 
through all the ages of eternity. He 
may never commit an overt act of 
sin, yet his soul be a literal hell of the 
vilest thoughts of the lowest vultures 
that ever preyed on man. What 
more diabolical a hell could the in- 
genuity of a fiend devise than an in- 
ferno of cruel, tormenting thoughts 
within that which was meant to be as 
calm and peaceful as a baby's sleep? 
Look yonder in the hospital. Do you 
see that miserable wretch raving like 
an incarnate fiend? He is suffering 
from, delirium tremens. This is but 
the harvest of his wild oats. The 
kingdom of hell is at hand and devils 
are plentiful in the forms of men. 

^ ^ The wages of sin is death. ' ' The 
punishments of hell are here and now. 
We cannot escape the penalty of a 
single low thought. Sinful thinking 
inevitably brings its bitter fruit. 
Every thought that has flashed across 
the horizon of the mind has left its 
image. Nature works with absolute 
impartiality. The hands of God al- 

[24] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

ways deal out perfect justice. As 
sure as there is ebb and flow of the 
tides, heat and cold, light and dark- 
ness, this certain is it that as a man 
thinketh so shall he be. The man who 
thinks low, grovelling thoughts will 
some day reap the bitter fruit of this 
low thinking. As the seed sa always 
is the harvest. Although he escapes 
the hands of the law, or his friends 
never find him out, nevertheless the 
wages of sin is death — death to all 
the higher and greater and nobler 
purposes of life. Chi e in inferno 
non sd cioche sia cielo. ^'He who is 
in hell knows not what heaven is.'' 

Solomon long ago said, ^'By what 
things a man sinneth, by these he is 
punished." For example, take a 
licentious man. At first, a lustful 
thought crept into his mind, as every 
one has experienced at one time or 
another. Like called for like, just as 
one drink calls for another, and so 
back it came in its sneaking and lurk- 
ing way. And this second time it was 
a little darker. Again he failed to 
drive it out. Again it came, again he 

[25] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

failed. At last it was made welcome 
and felt perfectly at home. Months 
and years went on, as months and 
years do, and his mind became the 
home of vicious thoughts. Now, all 
impressions strive to become ex- 
pressions — all thoughts strive to be- 
come deeds. So his lustful thoughts 
became lustful deeds. **The without 
becomes like the within. ^^ Years 
came and went, as years do. The man 
sank lower and lower, until at last he 
went down below the level of the beast, 
down into the inferno of hell — the bot- 
tomless pit, which he made for him- 
self. The contempt he deserves he 
gets. He is yonder in the hospital 
now, a smoldering flame is burning 
out his miserable soul. As a man 
thinketh so shall be his life. 

All men if they are made must be 
self-made. There is no factory that 
turns out ready-made men. Self-made 
implies self-controlled. If a man is 
controlled he must control himself. If 
he does not he is not controlled. He 
flops about like a beheaded chicken, 
he is whipped about by every wind 

126] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

that blows. Man must be his own 
master if he has a master. We are 
all masters of our own fate. We can 
by iron bars and cold laws confine 
men's bodies in prison, but the mind, 
the best part of man, we cannot con- 
trol. Self-control comes from self- 
exertion. It must come from within. 
The power to resist temptation can 
only be had by resisting. Men may 
be compelled to be decent in public, 
but this is no assurance of decency in 
private. Confinement in prison pro- 
tects society; but reformation in the 
criminal must come from his own 
exertion. 

The laws of psychology prove this 
truth. If we spend our early life 
in the completion of regularly ap- 
pointed tasks we shall find in old age 
that we cannot be happy without 
work. The law of habit will settle 
this for us. We all know old people 
who in youth and mid-life labored in- 
cessantly, in old age they moved to 
town to enjoy, in idleness, the fruits 
of their labor. But idleness is misery 
to them. The habits of industry once 

127] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

fixed cannot be changed. As we live 
in the active years of life so we must 
continue to live. It is with great dif- 
ficulty that we can change our ways 
of living after thirty years of age. 

I once slept and as I slept I dreamed 
a dream, and it was a strange and 
mysterious, yet wonderful, dream. It 
was a dream of infinite sadness and 
^'woe no man could tell.'' I dreamed 
that death in all its sadness came and 
claimed my soul. After those last 
agonizing hours I awoke in a new uni- 
verse and I knew that eternal life had 
come. The dream lasted a long, long 
time, it was centuries and centuries 
long. At times I was shrouded in 
darkness and densest gloom. I suf- 
fered over again all the remorse I had 
suffered on earth. It all came back 
again and again and I suffered it all 
anew. Then again, I was joyous and 
happy and lived again the joys of my 
good works on earth. At times I 
dreamed of my old home and new- 
mown hay and the great old farm- 
house and the snowy orchard and the 
pasture of undulating green. There 

[28] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

was the flower garden my aged mother 
had made and there the fields my aged 
father had tilled. And thus I lived 
over again and again the joys and 
sorrows of life. Yet all the while I 
felt that I must seek the judgment 
hall. At my mother's knee I had 
long, long ago been taught that a last 
judgment awaited me. So I sought 
for the hall of the last judgment. And 
as I sought it I thought of all the past. 
With infinite pain I suffered as I 
thought of my selfish deeds and sinful 
thoughts. Then again as I thought 
of the good I had tried to do, strength 
came to my arms and light to my eyes 
and I was happy. As I pondered and 
went my way there passed me one on 
whose face was infinite gloom and 
sadness beyond my words to tell. 
Great beads of cold perspiration 
stood on his whitened face. I saw in 
him. life without hope. I asked of him, 
^^ Where is the judgment hall?'' But 
he said not a word; his face was set, 
his eyes were fixed — ^vacantly he gazed 
at me, yet saw me not; he heard me 
speak, yet heard me not. Eternal 

[29] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

gloom like a shroud had settled on his 
face. I thought, surely he has been 
found guilty; and sure enough it was 
so. Soon I met another, and he was 
vastly different. On his face shone 
the glory of great strength and the 
serenity of perfect joy, and it was all 
as bright as the sun. And so, I asked 
of him, ^^ Where is the judgment 
hall?^^ And he smiled and said, 
** There is none. As you lived from 
day to day while on earth, so shall it 
be here. ' ' I awoke from my dream 
and have ever since been a better man. 
This same law writes the story 
of human happiness. Happiness is 
the desideratum for which all men 
strive in w:ays without number. All 
are agreed that happiness is the end 
for which they struggle. But all 
are not agreed as to how this end 
shall be reached. There is infinite 
diversity as to what constitutes the 
greatest happiness. Every people 
in every age has a different idea as 
to what constitutes the greatest hap- 
piness. To the American Indian it 
is a happy hunting-ground; to the 

[30] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

Turk it is a well-filled harem; to 
the Germanic savage it was a hard- 
fought battle every day, at the end of 
which all wounds were magically 
healed. The same is true with individ- 
uals as with peoples. To some happi- 
ness is found in wealth *'as boundless 
as wish might claim, '^ but to a Soc- 
rates wealth had no attraction. One 
sees happiness in one thing, another in 
something else. What is one man's 
food is another man's poison. 

Happiness comes from the nor- 
mal and moderate exercise of one's 
faculties. It comes from the ful- 
fillment of one's duties to self, family, 
and fellowmen. All animals seek 
pleasure. But one animal does not 
know what constitutes pleasure. And 
strange as it may seem that animal is 
the highest of all animals. Man does 
not know what constitutes pleasure. 
Pleasure never destroys life nor 
nobility of soul. Real pleasure is 
always conducive to life and never to 
death. ''Real pleasure is lasting, it 
does not burn out as it goes." That 
which appears to some shortsighted 

[311 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

wretch to give momentary pleasure 
and later brings pain and misery, is 
not pleasure. Intemperance is not 
pleasure, licentiousness is not pleas- 
ure, gambling is not pleasure, — these 
are causes of misery and a curse 
which inevitably follows the violation 
of the laws of life. They will never 
bring happiness. Happiness has its 
price, it must be earned. It cannot be 
given to another. Beauty, kindness, 
courage, wisdom, strength, — these 
cannot be given away. Neither can 
happiness. If you ever get happiness 
you must earn it. ^ * No one rides dead- 
head on the road to happiness. He 
who tries to do so never reaches his 
destination. He is left in the dumps. ' ' 
Man's endeavor to enjoy happiness 
that he has never paid for is the 
source of endless misery. Nothing 
that is worth having can be given to 
us. We must buy it. The price of 
happiness is self-exertion. Without 
self-exertion there can be no strength ; 
and without strength we cannot resist 
the forces of death. Strength comes 
from self-exertion and exertion means 

[32] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

industry. No exertion means idle- 
ness. No worker is idle; no drone is 
industrious ; no worker is a drone, no 
drone a worker. It is the weak who 
are idle. They are weak because they 
are idle. Idleness and weakness are 
twins. Idleness is unnatural. It is a 
violation of the laws of the universe. 
Idleness is the road to misery and all 
who travel thereon are sure to reach 
their destination. Idleness is the 
road on which deadheads ride. It 
will never lead them to happiness. 
Idleness is the desire to get rest when 
there has been no labor to rest from. 
It is the hope of getting something 
for nothing. Idleness is passivity, 
and passivity is death. Nothing comes 
from nothingness. Passive recipients 
are not active participants. 

"From toil he wins his spirits light, 
From busy day the peaceful night; 
Rich, from the very want of wealth, 
In heaven^s best treasures, peace and health/' 

The road to happiness is *^ white 
with dead men's bones." It is a 
stony road that leads through the val- 

[33] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

ley and shadow of death and thence 
on to glory eternal. On either side 
and all along the way we see the 
bleaching bones of the dead. Why is 
this? Because men have taken— 
have stolen — that which they have 
never earned. They have sought the 
pleasures of rest before there was 
labor to rest from; the pleasures of 
love without sacrifice and generosity; 
the pleasures of wealth without *^the 
sweat of the brow''; the pleasures of 
skill without practice; the pleasures 
of strength without labor front which 
strength comes; the pleasures of 
health without purity of life; the 
pleasures of an exuberance of life in 
its counterfeits, whiskey and absinthe 
and opium and cocaine and all the 
misery-giving dopes — these are all 
signboards to the road of misery. 
Men have sought something for 
nothing; they have sought the power 
of nobility and greatness in days of 
idleness ; they have sought the love of 
man in deeds of selfishness ; the power 
of purity in profligacy; they have 
sought the pleasures of life in acts of 

[34] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

death. They have taken noble things, 
but as the thief takes the diamond and 
the gambler the gold. They cannot 
keep them, for they have not earned 
them. 

Our misery is a short cut to happi- 
ness. Men seek exhilaration and exu- 
berance of life in alcohol and absinthe, 
but no exhilaration comes from these. 
They seek strength through cocaine, 
but no strength comes from this ; they 
seek rest through the use of a deadly 
poison — nicotine — ^but here rest is not 
to be found. All intemperance is a 
short cut to happiness; it is an en- 
deavor to enjoy the fruits of a plen- 
teous harvest without cultivating the 
crop. Lies are short cuts to impress 
upon others worth which we do not 
possess. 

Nature punishes us for our in- 
dolence and sin. But she does more. 
In ways without number she rewards 
us for obeying her laws. To him that 
hath is given. To him that tries not, 
nothing is given. If we observe her 
laws of health then health is ours. 
She rewards every day of labor and 

[35] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

curses every day of indolence. Be- 
fore me I see two pictures; one of 
health, purity, power and life; the 
other of disease, vice, weakness, and 
death; one of exertion, carefulness, 
watchfulness, solicitude, and knowl- 
edge ; the other of indolence, careless- 
ness, negligence, indifference, and ig- 
norance. One is the way of least re- 
sistance, the other of greatest exer- 
tion. One is the blessing of labor, the 
other the curse of laziness. This is 
always true; nature has no favorites. 
She curses inaction and blesses action. 
She weakens the weak and strength- 
ens the strong. She gives to him that 
deserves and takes away from him 
that deserves not. She is always just. 
We owe an honest debt to our fel- 
lowmen and it must be paid if we 
are to call ourselves men. So far as 
I know there is no way of escap- 
ing this debt. Those who endeavor 
to do so have a deservedly hard 
time of it. We see abou,t us every- 
where those who would escape it. 
Some are yonder at the barroom, 
others are lounging on the downy 

[36] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

couches of some *' gentlemen's club,'^ 
others we see at street corners lean- 
ing against lamp-posts, others are at 
the crossroads post-office waiting for 
m;ail although they have never yet 
received any, others we see at the 
nickelodeons and pool rooms. Those 
who refuse to pay this debt are not 
men ; they are lower animals, and may 
be bought in carload lots at any mar- 
ket. We are all slaves until we, by 
indefatigable labor, make ourselves 
free men. Others cannot free us, we 
must free ourselves. From times im- 
memorial the wealthy of every age 
have tried to free their sons from this 
debt, but it has been in vain. It is 
proverbial that the rich man's son has 
a weedy row of corn to hoe. Those 
whom the world call their greatest 
have in the plenitude of their power 
and resource served their fellowmen. 
They have not offered as payment of 
the debt of life gold and silver, fame 
and glory, or other selfish accomplish- 
ments. They have offered that which 
each and every one can offer — service 
to mian. Slave or free, brute or man, 

[37] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

it is for us to choose. Will we be men, 
then let us pay our honest debt. 

Great service may not be paid for in 
gold. Goethe was not hired to write 
^* Faust/ ^ nor was Verdi to compose 
**I1 Trovatore/' nor Socrates to teach 
the folly of pretension, nor Washing- 
ton to command our army. Who paid 
the thousands of heroic souls to suf- 
fer the unspeakable agonies of the In- 
quisition? How can we reward An- 
gelo for his statuary, or Plato for his 
philosophy? Not by gold. The great 
of every age have given to man that 
which man could not pay for in gold. 

My text is as true in national life as 
in individual life. As the seed, so 
shall be the harvest. Think of north- 
ern Europe and the words of Chan- 
cellor David Starr Jordan concern- 
ing it. *^ Three millions and seventy 
thousand of the strongest, best, 
and most robust of men and boys 
of Europe fed the cannon of the Na- 
poleonic wars. Most of these were 
Frenchmen. Many were younger 
than eighteen, many were older than 
thirty-five." ^^Conscription followed 

[38] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

conscription and conscription debased 
the human species.'* *^The human 
harvest was bad.'' But remember it 
was like the seed. ^^Let them die with 
arms in their hands, their death will 
be glorious, and it will be avenged. 
You can always fill the places of sol- 
diers. ' ' These are the words of 
Napoleon, but they are not true. You 
cannot fill the place of a single sol- 
dier. Never! A nation suffers in 
exact proportion as the human har- 
vest is bad. Those who have died in 
wars have been the strongest and best 
of the human species. Can France 
ever replace the five hundred and 
eighty thousand that perished on the 
way to and from Moscow? Never! 
France or any other nation will in- 
evitably decay as her best m!en are 
made the food of cannon. History re- 
peats this over and over again and 
again. Like causes always produce 
like effects. Permit me to quote from 
the ^^ Human Harvest." 

*^ 'Tis Greece, but living Greece no 
more; . . . for the Greek of today, 
for the most part, never came from 

[39] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

the loins of Leonidas or Miltiades. 
He is the son of the stable-boys and 
scullions and slaves of the day of her 
glory, those of whom imperial Greece 
could niake no use in her conquest of 
Asia/' The true Greeks were butch- 
ered in war. When they were gone, 
Greece fell. 

^^In the fall of Greece as in the fall 
of Rome, the primal elements we may 
easily find. The extinction of manly 
blood, the extinction of freedom of 
thought and action, increase of wealth 
gained by plunder, loss of national 
existence. '^ War today and decay to- 
morrow, this is the science of war. 

Rome, like other nations before 
and since, fell because of the destruc- 
tion of her strongest men, killed in 
war. Weaklings were left to beget 
the future generations of Rome. The 
life of a nation depends on those that 
are left, not on those that die he- 
roically in war. Rome took the blos- 
som of her manhood from field and 
shop and industry of every kind and 
sickened, starved, butchered, and 
mangled them in war. Ninety to 

[40] 



WHATSOEVER A MAN SOWETH 

ninety-five per cent, of the weaklings 
of Rome were left to beget the future 
generations of Eome. Most assuredly 
Rome fell. It could not have done 
otherwise. 

*^Our republic shall endure so long 
as the human harvest is good, so long 
as the movements of history and the 
progress of science and industry leave 
for the future the best and not the 
worst of each generation." As the 
seed so shall be the harvest. 



[411 



PART II 
THE RACE OF LIFE 



PART II 
THE EACE OF LIFE 

The battle cry of life is action 

Labor not as one who is wretched, nor yet 
as one who would be pitied or admired; but 
direct thy will to one thing only, to put thy- 
self in motion and to check thyself as the 
social reason requires. 

— Marcus Aurelius. 

T WISH to make a plea, as strong 
•*^ as I know how to make it, for ac- 
tivity. Life is given us that we may 
act; that we may move onward and 
upward. Neither enjoyment nor sor- 
row is the purpose of this life ; neither 
rejoicing nor grieving is our duty 
while on earth. To ^4ook up, not 
down''; to *^move forward, not back- 
ward'' — this is our duty. 

**That is righteous which promotes 
advancement or growth; that is sin- 
ful which retards advancement or 

[45] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

engenders degeneration. ' ^ Spencer 
says: **Life is a continuous adjust- 
ment of internal to external rela- 
tions. ' ' All about us we find proof of 
this. If I tie up my arm I soon lose 
the use of it. If I shut myself up in 
a cell I lose the power of running. If 
the environment of an animal changes 
so that it no longer needs a certain 
organ that organ passes away. And 
so we have birds, on certain islands, 
which have no wings; and fishes, in 
certain dark caves, which have no 
eyes. If an organ continues to live 
it must be used. And so it is with the 
body, which is a collection of organs ; 
if it lives it mlist be used. 

I take it as a self-evident fact that 
the most successful man is the man 
who is the most serviceable to man- 
kind. If I wish my arm to become 
more serviceable I must use it. If I 
wish my legs to serve me I must use 
them. I cannot develop the power to 
run or climb by sitting still, there 
must be action. If I wish a strong, 
rich voice I must use it and train it. 
There must be activity. If I wish my 

' 146] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

memory, or my will, or my inventive 
capacity to become greater and more 
useful to me I must use them, there 
must be activity. Thus it is with life, 
if I wish it to be a success I must 
use it. 

And so it is with my morality; if 
I wish to be moral I must act, I must 
overcome evil and do good, I must 
resist the vicious and encourage the 
virtuous. I cannot think of a strong 
man as one who never comes in con- 
tact with sin and crime and vice; he 
must overcome these and do good. 
The man who does not good deeds is 
not a good man. A post can be in- 
different; the hitching-post does 
neither good nor bad. To overcome 
evil and do good is to grow. And 
growth is righteousness. Life is a 
mighty battle and the battle-cry is 
growth through activity. 

Growth is natural, everyone knows 
this. Failure to grow is abnormal, 
unnatural, and therefore ungodly. 
God intends that we shall grow. We 
must grow or die, we must go up or 
down. We cannot go half way up and 

[47] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

stay there. But look about on the 
streets, in the church, in the business 
house, and see how many are violating 
this law of God. Look yonder in the 
Alhambra Barroom, how many of 
those young men are growing, grow- 
ing in power and the ability to do 
things? How many of them have 
purposes and thoughts more elevated 
than the filthy floor on which they are 
standing? Are they living a natural 
life? Are they growing? Or are they 
dying? Have these young men ever 
been alive; alive to the mighty possi- 
bilities of man? 

Elbert Hubbard says: '^The fal- 
lacy of fixity has been the one fatal 
error of theology in all the ages of 
the past. Progress consists in getting 
away from the idea of the static. '^ 

In all nature there is action and re- 
action, life and death, giving and tak- 
ing, growth and decay. But some 
men decay before they have begun to 
grow. This is sin. And sin brings 
suffering. We must grow— this is the 
purpose of life. Hubbard says : ^^The 
cure of grief is motion, the recipe for 

[48] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

strength is action." We must reap 
what we sow. If the seeds are of idle- 
ness, then death is our harvest. Aa 
a man soweth so shall he also reap. 
Franklin says, idleness is the Dead 
Sea that swallows all virtue. 

There is in all men a God-given dis- 
content. It is a longing for growth; 
for a realization of possibilities. It 
is nature's call to us to do, to be, to 
move onward and upward ; it is a long- 
ing for expansion and power which 
come only by persistent effort. 

Growth comes from within, but it 
will never come from within unless it 
is assisted from without. Never will 
a grain of com grow and multiply if 
left on a dry shelf, never can it grow 
if sunlight and moisture are refused. 
Just so with the babe, it cannot grow 
into the fullness of power if left on 
a dry shelf. Its environment, among 
other things, determines its growth. 
It will be savage if it grows up with 
savages, a criminal if it lives with 
criminals. Its growth is from within 
but it is shaped from without. 

[49] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

Everyone knows that environment 
shapes the life of plants and lower 
Animals. The whale was once a land 
animal, had legs and was covered with 
fur. Its new environment has taken 
most of its fur and left only rudi- 
ments for legs. And so with the 
human animal, development is from 
within but is shaped from without. 
**We say we educate, that is, we un- 
fold and lead out that which is within. 
The bud of the rose is unfolded by 
sunlight, but the color is determined 
from within.'* We cannot force the 
bud to unfold itself nor coax it to 
grow. Its growth is natural, this is 
all we know. It is thus with man. His 
growth is natural or godly. God in- 
tends that man should grow and move 
onward and upward. 

Everywhere we are told that in ac- 
tion and only in action can we find 
success. Life is a mighty battle and 
the battle-cry of life is action. The 
most successful man, the man who 
best serves humanity, must be a man 
of action. 

[50] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

I can give no better words than 
those of the late William James of 
Harvard. He says: 

'*No matter how full a reservoir of 
maxims one may possess, and no 
matter how good one^s sentiments 
may be, if one has not taken advan- 
tage of every concrete opportunity to 
act, one's character may remain en- 
tirely unaffected for the better. With 
mere good intentions, hell is proverbi- 
ally paved.'' 

'^From toil he wins his spirits light, 
From busy day the peaceful night; 
Rich, from the very want of wealth, 
In heaven's best treasures, peace and health." 

The man who persistently, conscien- 
tiously, and faithfully believes he can 
and will in the end win the prize and 
who goes as far as possible with the 
means he has today, be his means 
never so little, will some day realize in 
himself what he has so long hoped 
for. He will, in himself, find the like- 
ness of the Great Stone Face. But 
he will realize nothing if he has not 
faith in today. Faith is a mighty 
force which attracts the prize to him. 

151] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

Use today every possible means by 
which to reach the goal. Plan that 
tomorrow will be better than today; 
and lo and behold, tomorrow you will 
find that the ladder by which you 
climb will be longer and more firmly 
set. ^* Whosoever hath, to him shall 
be given. ^^ It makes not one iota of 
difference how short the ladder may 
be to begin with, if you use what you 
are given today to the best of your 
ability and have faith in tomorrow, 
more will be given to you. All the 
world helps the man who helps him- 
self. 

And so for my text I have chosen 
one concerning the race of life. It is 
not a text from which one can write 
an entertaining speech, but it is a text 
on which one can speak seriously. 

**Know ye not that they which run 
in a race run all, but one receiveth the 
prize? So run that you may obtain. 
And every man that striveth for the 
mastery is temperate in all things. 
Now, they do it to obtain a corruptible 
crown, but we are incorruptible. I 

(52] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

therefore so run . . . not uncertainly ; 
so fight I, not as one that beateth the 
air. ' ' ( Corinthians 9 : 24-26. ) 

Heaven and happiness, peace and 
contentment, rest and tranquillity, — 
these are the things all men desire to 
get; these are the things all men are 
striving for. These are talked for, 
prayed for, and worked for in ways 
innumerable. I know of no other 
thoughts so common as thoughts con- 
cerning happiness. They are talked 
on in the family circle and in the col- 
lege halls; preachers preach about 
them and congregations think about 
them. Everyone desires heaven and 
happiness; yet not one in ten thou- 
sand succeeds. How many of you who 
are now before me can say, ^^My life 
has been a happy one ' ' ? Ask yourself 
if it has. If it has not, ask why. Why 
has it been unhappy? Most unhappy 
mortals can say, ^'Because of my lazy 
self.'' 

My good friends, wherein is our 
conception of happiness? Is it not to 
be found in the virtuous life which 

[63] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

Jesus taught us to follow? I believe 
it is. 

It is no small wonder that most 
people do not get happiness. Some go 
about the race of life just as if they 
Were going out to bask in the sunshine 
on a spring day. They saunter about 
as if life lasted forever and there was 
no end to the time one has here on 
earth. 

Few people seem to know any of the 
laws of happiness. Paul gives one in 
our text. He tells us that if we ever 
get happiness we must run for it. 
There must be persistent effort and 
consistent activity. We cannot sit still 
and wait for it, we must run for it. 
Growth does not come from sitting. 
Many would have happiness if the 
wind would blow it in at their doors. 
But the wind will never do this, never. 
Happiness comes from hard and con- 
tinuous running. 

Happiness is a state within and 
not a condition without. This state 
within is attained only by persistent 
effort. Happiness is at hand and is 
for all. Heaven is within us. Joy, 

[54] 



THE EACE OF LIFE 

peace, pleasure, beauty, power, — these 
are all sure to come if we but act in 
accord with nature's law. Heaven 
will then come of itself as God has 
made it to come. 

Happiness! our being^s end and aim! 



Plant of celestial seed! if dropp'd below, 
Say in what mortal soil thou deign^st to grow f 



Where grows? — Where grows it not? If vain 

our toil, 
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil : 
Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere, 
'Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere ; 
'Tis never to be bought, but always free, 
And, fled from monarchs, St. John dwells with 

thee. 



Take Nature^s path, and mad Opinion^s leave, 
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive; 
Obvious her goods, in no extremes they dwell; 
There needs but thinking right, and meaning 

well; 
And, mourn our various portions as we please. 
Equal is common sense and common ease. 
Remember, Man, "The Universal Cause 
Acts not by partial but general laws"; 
And makes what Happiness we justly call. 
Subsist not in the good of one, but all. 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

There's not a blessing individuals find, 

But someway leans and barkens to tbe kind. 

Condition, circumstance is not tbe tbing; 
Bliss is tbe same in subject or in king; 
In wbo obtain defence, or wbo defends ; 
In bim wbo is or bim wbo finds a friend : 
Heaven breatbes tbrougb every member of the 

whole 
One common blessing as one common Soul. 
But Fortune's gifts, if each alike possessed, 
And all were equal must not all contest? 
If then to all men happiness was meant, 
God in externals could not place content. 

— Pope. 

Let me say a word about those who 
strive for the mastery in this race of 
life. First, there are the indifferent. 
They run because hunger drives them. 
Some drag along like a colt at the 
heels of its dam. Some men have no 
higher purposes in life than to fill 
their stomachs. Some run only when 
kicked from behind and dragged from 
in front. These will never win the 
prize. The recipe for perpetual 
misery is to be content with what you 
have and are. But the recipe for 
strength is action. 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

Second, we have those that start off 
at a mighty pace but can't keep up in 
this race. They start off with a grand 
and glorious dash, but they are soon 
out of wind. They surpass all at first, 
but it is soon all up with them. They 
fall by the wayside, and their bones 
whiten in the sun. 

Threefold is the form of Space: 
Length, with ever restless motion, 
Seeks eternity's wide ocean; 
Breadth with boundless sway extends ; 
Depth to unknown realms descends. 

All as types to thee are given: 
Thou must onward strive for heaven, 
Never still or weary be 
Wouldst thou perfect glory see; 
Far must thy researches go 
Wouldst thou learn the world to know; 
Thou must tempt the dark abyss 
Wouldst thou prove what Being is. 

Naught but firmness gains the prize,— 
Naught but fullness make us wise, — 
Buried deep, truth ever lies! 

— Schiller. 

Third, we have the out-of-time run- 
ners. They run all the time and stead- 
ily too, but they never get anywhere, 

[57] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

they are always out of time. They 
live in the past and have therefore be- 
gun to die. No man can lay claim to 
life because he did a noble deed yes- 
terday. They live in the future and 
pave their way with good intentions. 
Hell is thus paved. We must not only 
run with all our might this race of life, 
but we must run at the right time. 
We must run now or never. Now is 
the accepted time. * * Boast not thyself 
of tomorrow, for thou knowest not 
what a day may bring. '^ ** Every day 
wasted takes a cubit from your 
stature.*^ 

Elbert Hubbard savs: '^ That is 
good which serves — ^man is the im- 
portant item, this earth is the place 
and the time now. So all good men 
and women and all churches are en- 
deavoring to make earth, heaven and 
all agree that to live now and here is 
the best one can, is the fittest prepara- 
tion for a life to come.^^ 

Old Sam Jones said, **If we would 
give more time to the nasty now and 
less to the sweet bye and bye we would 
get along better.^' 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

The present is all that we have, but 
how little men realize this. They live 
as if life lasted forever and there was 
no end to it. The wise Seneca said: 
**In the distribution of human life we 
find that a great deal of it passes 
away in evil-doing ; and a greater part 
yet in doing just nothing at all. ' ' Re- 
member these last words, in doing just 
nothing at all. If ever we win the 
prize, heaven and happiness, we shall 
not spend our time in doing just noth- 
ing at all. 

And again he says: **What a deal 
of time is it that we spend in hopes 
and fears, love and revenge, in balls, 
threats, making of interests, suing for 
oflSce . . . and slavish flatteries." 

^^The shortness of life is the com- 
plaint of fools and philosophers. 
Men ever complain about too few 
years ; forgetting that life has breadth 
as well as length. Not how many 
years but how well we do live in those 
years that are given us.'' ^*No man 
takes care to live well, but long ; when 
yet it is every man's power to do the 
former and no man's to do the latter." 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

^ * There is nothing that we can prop- 
erly call our own but time, and yet 
everybody fools us out of it that has a 
mind to. If a man borrows a sum 
of money, there must be bonds and 
securities . . . but he that has my 
time thinks he owes me nothing for 
it/^ 

'Tomorrow you'll reform, you always cry; 
In what far country does this morrow lie, 
That it is so mighty long ere it arrive? 
Beyond the Indies does this morrow livef 
'Tis so far-fetched this morrow that I fear 
'Twill be both very old and very dear. 
Tomorrow I'll reform, the fool does say; 
Today itself 's too late — ^the wise did yesterday/^ 

'^The mill will never grind again 
with water that is past.'^ All life 
moves forward, not backward; up- 
ward, not downward. The ancestor 
of the powerful Percheron horse was 
once a little five-toed, long-eared, un- 
intelligent brute no larger than the 
shepherd dog that plays about the 
barnyard. Through untold thousands 
of years of evolution it has climbed 
upward until at last we have the 
mighty beast of burden. The man 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

who has begun to live in the past has 
begun to die. He who has *^a good 
future" resting on the past is doomed 
to extinction. We must live in the 
present and in the newness of new 
things. De Soto sought for the foun- 
tain of eternal youth in our mighty 
river, but found it not. The fountain 
of eternal youth is the fountain of 
eternal endeavor that bears one on- 
ward and upward forever. 

"New occasions teach new duties; Time makes 

ancient good uncouth; 
They must upward still, and onward who would 

keep abreast of Truth." 

Fourth. We have the weak who 
enter this race of life. But the weak 
cannot win. In all the millions of years 
that this old world has moved onward 
and upward the prize has been to the 
steady and strong. Men glutted with 
gold and frenzied for cards and drink 
and women may as well bid the moun- 
tains leap into the sea as enter this 
race of life. The law of this world 
says the weak shall surely perish. I 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

know of no more fitting words than 
those of Hannah More : 

Till now, IVe slept on lifers tumultuous tide, 
No principle of action for my guide. 
From ignorance my chief misfortunes flow; 
I never wished to learn, or cared to know; 
With every folly slow-paced time beguiled; 
In size a woman, but in soul a child. 
In slothful ease my moments crept away. 
And busy trifles filled the tedious day; 
I lived extempore, as fancy fired. 
As chance directed, or caprice inspired. 
Too indolent to think, too weak to choose. 
Too soft to blame, too gentle to refuse; 
My character was stamped from those around; 
The figures they, my mind the simple ground. 
Fashioned, with monstrous forms, the canvas 

strained. 
Till nothing of my genuine self remained; 
My pliant soul from chance received its bent, 
And neither good performed, nor evil meant. 
From right to wrong, from vice to virtue 

thrown, 
No character possessing of its own. 
To shun fatigue I made my only law; 
Yet every night my wasted spirits saw. 
No plan e'er marked the duties of the day. 
Which stole in tasteless apathy away: 
No energy informed my languid mind; 
No joy the idle e'er must hope to find. 
Weak indecision all my actions swayed; 
The day was lost before the choice was made. 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

Though more to folly than to guilt inclined, 
A dear vacuity possessed my mind. 
Too old with infant sports to be amused, 
Unfit for converse, and to books unused, 
The wise avoided me ; they could not hear 
My senseless prattle with a patient ear. 
I sought retreat, but found, with strange 

surprise. 
Retreat is pleasant only to the wise; 
The crowded world by vacant minds is sought, 
Because it saves th' expense and pain of 
thought. 

—Hannah More {1745-1832). 

Fifth. Then we have those who mn 
with all their might but who cannot 
keep the road. They dash here, 
yonder, and everywhere. They seem 
not to fit in. They see only the 
finished products in life. 

Few know of life's beginnings — ^men behold 
The goal achieved ; — the warrior, when his sword 
Flashes red triumph in the noonday sun; 
The poet, when his lyre hangs on the palm; 
The statesman, when the crowd proclaim his 

voice 
And mould opinion, on his gifted tongue : 
They count not life's first steps, and never 

think 
Upon the many miserable hours 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

When hope deferred was sickness to the heart. 
They reckon not the battle and the march, 
The long privations of a wasted youth ; 
They never see the banner till unfurled. 
What are to them the solitary nights 
Past pale and anxious by the sickly lamp, 
Till the young poet wins the world at last 
To listen to the music long his own? 
The crowd attend the statesman's fiery mind 
That makes their destiny ; but they do not trace 
Its struggle, or its long expectancy. 
Hard are life's early steps ; and, but that youth 
Is buoyant, confident, and strong in hope. 
Men would behold its threshold, and despair. 
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon {1802-1838). 

In every city, town, village or ham- 
let are those who have ruined them- 
selves by doing odd jobs. They have 
no single, dominant idea. Single- 
mindedness they know is success, yet 
they ever turn this way and that and 
move by fits and jerks. One idea we 
must run for and die for, if we are to 
win this race. Edison has but one idea, 
Socrates had but one purpose; Napo- 
leon fought his battles after one plan. 
Only when one gets an idea of his own 
can he truly win the race. This one 
idea should be in one's mind every 

[64] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

day of his life. Calmly, quietly, per- 
sistently hold it there and success is 
as sure to crown one 's efforts as snow 
is to crown the mountain peak. 
Shakespeare said: 

There is a tide in the affairs of men, 
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. 
Omitted, all the voyages of their life 
Is bound in shallows, and in miseries. 

Julius Caesar — Act IV — Sc. i. 

OPPORTUNITY 
Master of human destinies am I. 
Fame, love, and fortune on my footsteps wait. 
Cities and fields I walk; I penetrate 
Deserts and seas remote, and, passing by 
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late 
I knock unbidden once at every gate! 
If sleeping, wake — if feasting, rise before 
I turn away. It is the hour of fate. 
And they who follow me reach every state 
Mortals desire, and conquer every foe 
Save death; but those who doubt or hesitate, 
Condemned to failure, penury and woe, 
Seek me in vain and uselessly implore — 
I answer not, and I return no more. 

— John J, Ingalls. 

The late William James said: **Let 
no youth have an anxiety about the 
upshot of his education, whatever the 

[65] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

line of it may be. If he keeps faith- 
fully busy each hour of the working 
day he may safely leave the final re- 
sult to itself. He can with perfect cer- 
tainty count on waking up some fine 
morning, to find himself one of the 
competent ones of his generation." 

* ' Success in most things depends on 
knowing how long it takes to suc- 
ceed. ' ^ Many a noble youth dashes up 
one road for a year or two and fail- 
ing to find a pot of gold dashes up an- 
other and then another, and so on all 
through life. It would be just as wise 
to plant cotton and because it is of 
slow growth hoe it up and plant corn, 
and because corn is too slow ripening 
hoe it up and plant alfalfa. This is 
exactly what some men do in this race 
of life. My good friends, it takes 
years for heaven and happiness to 
mature. 

**The law of the Soul is eternal endeavor, 
That bears the man upward and onward 
forever." 

Sixth, and most important, we 
have the successful runners. They 

[66] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

run that they may obtain the prize 
which is heaven and happiness. 
They run each day to the limit of 
their capability to run. They run 
steadily, evenly, smoothly, and cer- 
tainly. To run each day to the limit 
of your capacity to run, and run on 
the right road, surely will win the 
prize. The successful runner runs 
neither to one side nor the other. 
On and on he must go, clear-eyed, 
strong-souled and steady-nerved. 

The successful runner does more 
than run steadily and determinedly. 
He does more than run through sick- 
ness and reverses and troubles of 
every kind, he does more than this. 
There are thousands of men who do 
all this and still never win the prize. 
There are thousands who work year 
after year but know nothing of happi- 
ness. The runner must get on the 
right road, run on it, and stay on it. 
Indeed it is no easy thing to do this, 
but it must be so. ** Straight is the 
gate and narrow is the way which 
leadeth into life; and few there are 
that find it. Wide is the way and 

[•67 1 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

broad is the gate that leadeth to de« 
strnction, and many there be which go 
inthereaf 

As we set out on this journey we 
must not take the average man for our 
guide. The successful runner has a 
different guide. For most men have 
not found the right road, they know 
not the road which leads to life. The 
well-traveled and well-beaten road is 
not the road which leads to life. Oh, 
no, it will not take you where you wish 
to go. The road which leads to life 
is too narrow for the masses to see. 
Narrow is the way and straight the 
gate which leads to heaven and happi- 
ness; and few there are that have 
found it. But we are told about this 
way and we can find it if we wish. 
Jesus told us about this way when he 
said: ^^I am the way, the truth, the 
life.'^ If this be true then the road to 
happiness is the road of service, and 
brotherly love. Let me first say a few 
words about the road of service. 

I wish to impress on your minds 
the idea of running. We miist run. 
Those who run in a f oo^ race run with 

[68] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

all their might and strength. So let 
me impress upon your minds that the 
successful man must run with all his 
might and strength, and he must run 
all the way, and he must run on the 
right road ; but above all he must run; 
and he must have strength that he 
may run. Is it any w:onder that Paul 
tells us to run for the prize? Do the 
good things of this world come to us 
by sitting down and waiting for them? 
Never. There is but one thing that 
comes that way. This is degenera- 
tion, weakness, decay and death. All 
the good things in this world come 
from labor. The ancient Greeks said, 
^'The gods of labor give us all good 
things.'^ And the Eomans said, 
*^ Labor conquers all things. '^ And 
Jesus said, ^*Go work today, my son, 
in my vineyard.'' From work comes 
strength; from idleness comes weak- 
ness; from work comes power; from 
idleness comes decay. Work is virtu- 
ous, idleness is vicious. Work keeps 
one looking upward and onward for- 
ever, while idleness turns one down- 
ward and backw^ard eternally. Never 

[69] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

will we get happiness save through 
work. 

'^Look up, not down !'' Do you see how the tree- 
top 
Rejoices in sunshine denied to its root; 
And hear how the lark, gazing skyward, is 
flooding 
The world with his song, while the ground 
bird is mute? 

"Look forward, not back!" 'Tis the chant of 
creation, 
The chime of the seasons as outward they 
roll, 
'Tis the pulse of the world, 'tis the hope of the 
ages, 
'Tis the voice of our God in the depth of the 
soul. 

"Lend a hand!" like the sun that turns night 
into morning; 
The light that guides storm-driven sailors to 
land. 
Ah, life were worth living, with this for the 
watchword : 
"Look up, out, and forward, and each lend 
a hand!" 

— Alice Freeman Palmer,^ 

The lives of great men overflow 
with stories of joyous labor, *^I wish 

^ (By courtesy 6f Penn Publishing Co*) 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

to be a good son, a good citizen, and 
the first naturalist of my time. I feel 
within me the strength of a whole gen- 
eration to work toward this end, and 
I shall reach it, if the means be not 
wanting.'' These are the words of 
young Louis Agassiz. He wrote them 
to his father on the threshold of his 
career. In the eyes of many he was 
the most learned naturalist in Europe. 
This honor came before he was 
twenty-five years of age. Did this 
honor come by sitting and waiting? 
Oh ! no. At times he worked fourteen 
hours a day. He had little money and 
could not well afford to buy books; 
but he could borrow them and commit 
them to memory; or copy them with 
his own hand. 

The world turned aside for this 
man, as it will do for every man who 
knows where he is going. 

Jesus said: ^^Thou shalt love the 
Lord thy God with all thy heart, with 
all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
and with all thy strength." God is 

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THE RACE OF LIFE 

absolute perfection. To live a godly 
life is to live a natural life. When we 
love with all our soul and all our mind 
and all our strength it is certain that 
we shall become like that which we 
love. God is love. Then let us love, 
for love is perfection. Then if we be- 
come like that which we love we shall 
become like perfection. If our minds 
are filled with divine love no vice can 
enter; no enmity, no hatred, no fear, 
no worry. If we work in love the 
divine laws of nature all work with 
us. We can in this way become per- 
fect even as our Father in Heaven is 
perfect. 

"Who seeks for Heaven alone to save his soul 
May keep the path, but will not reach the goal ; 
While he who walks in love may wander far 
Yet God will bring him where the blessed are." 

— Van Dyke. 

Love is a power greater and more 
potent than life itself. At birth we 
know it not, but soon it comes as God 
has made it to come. It comes as a 
light to our pathway and a star to our 
souls, to dower us on earth and then 

[721 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

take its flight back to the God who sent 
it. It is a spirit which creates us 
anew. It radiates in our souls and 
will never be buried in our clay. Love 
is eternal as God is eternal. My good 
friends, did you ever stop to think 
what would be left when the fleeting 
hands of time have taken this poor 
body away? Will this be the end! Is 
there an end to God — to Love? I 
think this cannot be. I know we can- 
not hold today, it must pass away ; we 
wither like the grass that grows by 
the roadside. But in our death, Death 
shall die. The end of this life will be 
the future *s birth. 

They sin who tell us love can die; 
With life all other passions fly, 
All others are but vanity. 
In Heaven Ambition cannot dwell 
Nor Avarice in the vaults of Hell ; 
Earthly these passions of the Earth ; 
They perish where they have their birth, 
But Love is indestructible; 
It's holy flame forever bumeth, 
Prom Heaven it came, to Heaven retumeth. 
Too oft on Earth a troubled guest, 
At times deceived, at times opprest. 
It here is tried and purified, 

[73] 



THE RACE OF LIFE 

Then hath in Heaven its perfect rest. 
It soweth here with toil and care, 
But the harvest-time of love is there. 

The Curse of Kehama — Southey. 

The grandest things in this old 
world are life and love. To live we 
must love and to love we must live. 
To find life and love in abundance ^e 
must lose life and love — lose them for 
self and find them for others. Goethe 
said: 

"Till this truth thou knowest, 
*Die to live again/ 
Stranger-like thou goest 
Through a world of pain." 

Whoever listens to the voice of love 
listens to the voice of God, and his 
obedience to this voice makes of him 
a unit of the everlasting and uni- 
versal powers in which is all the real 
goodness of this world. To do the will 
of God is the end of all religion and 
the condition of all blessedness, all 
joy, all happiness and life without 
end. 



174] 



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